Disneyland

Will Disneyland survive the Crisis?

There is the possibility that asymmetrical warfare is a bigger deal for a tourist attraction billed as "The Happiest Place on Earth," while further attempting to be known as - and to be - family-friendly. If safety became a concern there, attendance would plummet, which could further lead to questions about its viability, which might feed back and reduce attendance more. Disneyland was closed early in the day on September 11, 2001, in part because the possibility of an attack there was easily predictable. Nonetheless, that's not really the focus of this question.

Will a park built by the previous Hero generation still be of interest to the Millennials? Disneyland was built by Walt Disney in the 1950s, with nostalgia for the recent Awakening and excitement for the advances anticipated in the post-war period. There are merry-go-rounds, horseless carriages, rockets to the moon, animatronic pirates, imitation jungles. These won't match the nostalgia today's Hero generation cares about, and won't look forward in the same way that they may want to look forward after the Crisis ends. There's the possibility that interest in the park - and the other similar theme parks - will decline, perhaps quickly, at that time.

The people at Disney, of course, are smart enough to recognize the potential threats to their livelihood. There are reasons the parks are enjoyable aside from nostalgia and anticipation. There are reasons for attractions to become uninteresting aside from disinterest based on generational biases. A number of attractions are set up to give different experiences from ride to ride. Still, there are times it seems that today's young adults go there because their parents take them or took them.  At some point they'll look at a pirate or an elephant or a doll that looks like a child - built using technology that was incredibly advanced a half-century earlier - and wonder about their reason for being there. If we acknowledge that a lot of these people will have a similar outlook, we can imagine many of them abruptly deciding that they have better ways to spend their entertainment dollars.